One of the workloads QDT tested for cloud datacenter TCO is the popular HHVM web server framework, originally written by
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Our TCO analysis demonstrated that using only one Qualcomm Centriq 2452 SoC per server chassis, a 12kW rack full of 36 46-core SoCs should show slightly better performance than a rack full of Intel Xeon Silver 4110 dual-socket server chassis, at only 51% of the power consumption. That’s similar performance with about half the power consumption.

Using two Qualcomm Centriq 2452 SoCs per server chassis in a 12kW rack should yield a little over double the performance of the dual-socket Intel Xeon Silver 4110 servers at 88% of the power consumption. A key factor is that only 35 of the Intel Xeon Silver 4110 systems can fit within the 12kW rack power budget. In this scenario, Qualcomm Centriq 2400 offers double the performance with less power consumption.

Two motherboards per server (right: Qualcomm Centriq 2400) are better than one (left: Intel Xeon Scalable)TIRIAS Research

The results of QDT’s Armv8 core and SoC design decisions are clear in our TCO analysis of several workloads running on Qualcomm Centriq 2452 server SoCs. If density is critical, a CSP can achieve twice the performance using dual Qualcomm Centriq 2400s per chassis. Otherwise, a CSP can provide the same performance in the same overall rack space using roughly half the power by using single Qualcomm Centriq 2400s per chassis.

I think the standout decisions in QDT’s SoC design were going 64-bit only (eliminating the extra logic required for legacy Arm instructions), eliminating scale-up in favor of scaling out single-socket server nodes and initial manufacturing in Samsung’s 10nm silicon process. For certain workloads, these decisions contributed to maximizing performance per core and the number of cores on a cost-effective SoC, plus minimizing per core and overall SoC power consumption.

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-- The author and members of the TIRIAS Research staff do not hold equity positions in any of the companies mentioned. TIRIAS Research tracks and consults for companies throughout the electronics ecosystem from semiconductors to systems and sensors to the cloud.

I write about what is important, new, different and possibly disruptive about a wide range of technologies. I am a Principal Analyst with DoubleHorn; my career is focused on successfully commercializing technology-based products and services. I’ve been in high-tech for over ...